Delete or move PDF pages: what happens to links and bookmarks?

The short answer: pages stay, structure follows rules

Organize PDF builds a new document from your pages. It copies each page as it is, with its text, fonts, pictures and drawings, so nothing on a page is redrawn, blurred or changed. That includes any number printed on the page. What changes are the parts that point at pages: bookmarks, links and the page structure. Those follow a few simple rules:

• Kept: bookmarks and links that point at pages you keep.
• Removed: bookmarks and links that point at pages you delete.
• Left as they were: numbers printed on pages, and any contents list typed into the document. They don't update by themselves.

The rest of this post goes part by part, and ends with a quick check to run on the finished file. Everything happens in your browser, so your file is never uploaded.

The whole list at a glance

This is what happens to each part when you save a new order, a deletion, a copy or a turn. The two columns are for pages from one file and pages from several files mixed together:

Links to websites are not tied to pages, so they keep working. Links that jumped to a named place in a file become direct links to their page.

Bookmarks: the side-panel contents

Bookmarks are the clickable table of contents in a PDF reader's side panel, also called the outline. Each one points at a page. When you delete that page, the bookmark has nowhere to go, so it is removed. Some details:

• Sub-bookmarks move up. If a removed bookmark had others inside it, they move up to take its place, so a chapter with sections doesn't take its sections with it.
• Headings stay, unless they were only headings for bookmarks that are all gone. A bookmark that points nowhere in particular, like a web link, stays.
• Moving pages doesn't break bookmarks. A bookmark follows its page to the new place. Every page you keep still has its bookmark.
• A copied page goes right after the page it was copied from, and gets its own copies of that page's links.

In practice: if you delete the whole of chapter 3, its bookmark goes. If you delete one page in the middle of chapter 3, the chapter's bookmark stays, as long as the page it points to is still there. If you delete the page where a chapter starts, that chapter's bookmark is removed even though the chapter's other pages remain, so check the panel afterwards.

Links inside the document

A PDF's links come in two kinds. A link to a website has no page behind it, so it keeps working. A link to another part of the PDF, like a line in a table of contents, points at a page. If that page is kept, the link works, even if the page moved. If the page is deleted, the link is removed.

That has a catch for a typed table of contents. A contents page whose lines are clickable loses the links for deleted chapters, but the lines of text stay on the page, because they're part of what is printed. A reader sees a line "Chapter 3 ..... 14" that no longer leads anywhere. It's better to delete those lines at the source, or to leave the chapter in.

When a page is copied, the copy gets its own copies of the page's links. In our tests, a 117-page maths textbook with two pages moved and one deleted was saved in 0.6 seconds, and Poppler, a different PDF reader, found the same words on every page as on the original pages. For deleting pages in full, see Delete pages from a PDF.

What does not update: printed numbers and typed lists

This is where people get caught. Organize PDF changes the structure, not what is printed on the pages. So:

• Page numbers printed on the pages stay as they were. Delete page 5 of a 12-page report that was numbered 1 to 12, and the new file has 11 pages numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 and so on. The number 5 is simply missing. Move page 2 after page 3 and the numbers read 1, 3, 2.
• A contents list typed in the document still shows the old page numbers.
• Words like "see page 8" in the text still say page 8.
• Totals like "Page 3 of 12" still say 12.

The way out depends on your situation:

1. Plan the order first, then add page numbers at the end. If the pages have no numbers yet, Add Page Numbers writes new ones on the finished file, so they run 1 to N. That is the best order: arrange, then number. See PDF page numbers wrong or overlapping?
2. If numbers are already printed on the pages, they can't be removed with our tools, because they are part of the page. Fix them at the source, where you made the document, and make the PDF again. Or accept the gaps and say so ("page 5 removed").
3. For a typed contents list, edit it in the original document and make the PDF again, for example with Word to PDF.

The reader's own page count, such as "3 / 11", is simply the place of the page in the file and updates by itself. Why the PDF says page 3 when the page says 1 explains the difference.

Forms, signatures and locked files

Fillable forms.

Form fields are kept, with anything already filled in. In our test, a filled-in one-page form kept all 8 of its answers. A copied page gets its own field boxes, but a field shows the same value on both pages, because it is still one field: fill in your name once and it appears on both. XFA forms, an older kind, are left out when you mix files.

Fields on deleted pages.

They go with the page. If the form needs a field that was on the deleted page, it will be missing.

Digital signatures.

A digital signature shows a file hasn't changed since it was signed. A reorganized copy has changed, so it no longer carries a valid signature, and the result tells you. If the signature matters, send the signed file as it is. A scanned picture of a handwritten signature is different: it is part of the page, and stays.

A password to open.

A PDF that needs a password before it opens can't be used here. Remove the password first with Unlock PDF, which needs the password, then add the unlocked copy.

Editing restrictions.

A PDF that opens without a password but doesn't allow changes can be used. The new PDF opens without those restrictions, and the result says so.

Tags and page labels

Two hidden parts are more delicate. Tags are the hidden map of headings, paragraphs and tables that screen readers use to read a PDF aloud in order. They are kept only if no page was deleted or moved, because moving a page would put the map out of step with the pages. Page labels are custom page numbers stored in the file, like i, ii and iii for an introduction. They are kept only if the order and the number of pages are unchanged.

If you need a tagged, accessible PDF, do the arranging in the program that made the document and save a tagged PDF from there. Organize PDF's other output, the pages themselves, stays as it was: text can still be searched, selected and copied.

A two-minute check on the saved file

1. Open the new file in the PDF viewer and look at the Bookmarks tab in the side panel. If the PDF has no bookmarks, this tab doesn't appear. Click a few bookmarks and check where they land.
2. Click two or three links in the contents page, if there is one.
3. Search for a word you know is on a page you kept. It should be found, because text stays text.
4. Look at the printed page numbers on the first, middle and last pages. Are there gaps, or an order you didn't want?
5. If it's a form, fill in a field in your usual reader to check it still works. (Our viewer only reads PDFs and can't fill forms.)

Your original is never changed, so if something is wrong, go back to it, change the cards and save again. The new file is named after the file of its first page with "-organized" added, like report-organized.pdf.

Reorganize without uploading anything

The PDFs people reorganize are often private: bank statements, ID copies, contracts, medical reports. Organize PDF has no upload step and never sends your file anywhere: your own browser draws the page pictures and builds the new PDF. The page contacts only this site and Google's ad service, which shows the ads that keep the tools free, and our code never gives your files to the ad code. The privacy policy has the details.